Authentic activities and speaking skills

Abstract

The present investigation analyzed the influence of using authentic activities in speaking skills. The population of study was a group of 29 students from 10th. grade at Unidad Educativa “Sagrada Familia”. A quantitative and quasi-experimental methodology was applied in this project. The instrument used in this investigation was a pre-test and a post-test taken from Cambridge Key English for A2 level, and only the speaking part was used, both exams consisted of two parts the first contained different personal questions to answer about their city and friends. The second part contained a conversation using a picture added in the exam. Furthermore, treatments were based on the application of authentic activities in the classroom, these tasks were applied in the subject of English and contained authentic resources such as cultural objects, postal, movie clips, authentic videos, Tik Tok videos, interviews, songs, lyrics, and posters. These materials were employed to create authentic activities in class such as presentations about your last trip, conversations and oral presentations about an exciting trip , creating and presenting a story with a movie clip, conversation in groups about your favorite movie, simulations, role-plays ,interviewing a famous person, conversations about our feelings with music, making notes about our thoughts ,creating and presenting a ecologic poster in class, planning a party and preparing its itinerary ,and debates in class. Pre-test and Post-test results were analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program, showing an average of 5,27 in the pre-test and average of 7,62 in the post-test describing an improvement of 2,35. In summary, the application of authentic activities is effective for the development of speaking skills.